It's Sugar Time Again

April 19, 1992

Holidays are often about food, and rarely more so than at Easter and Passover, each of which celebrates a triumph over death.

Eating together is probably the oldest human ritual. But, in late 20th-century America, the simple sharing of something delicious turns into a national compulsion. Parents of young children feel this most keenly. To them it can seem that the combination of secular and religious holidays conspires to keep a constant supply of sugar on hand that only the grouchiest, most dietetically correct parent can interrupt.

Consider Halloween. Many children begin the month of November sick to their stomachs from overindulgence. If their parents put the dreaded Trick-or-Treat bags on a high shelf and parcel out the sweets gradually, they are assured of a supply of candy that can easily last them to the next sugarfest in late December.

Then, if they're lucky, they'll get an infusion of candy canes, chocolate Santas, sugar cookies and chocolate money. Adults who enter the house will feel compelled to add to the collection.

Once again, if parents refuse to allow a weeklong orgy of sweets, and distribute them gradually, the supply can last until Valentine's Day, when sugar hearts and red-hots and heart-shaped cherry lollipops come to the rescue. When those run out, with very few sugarless days intervening, it's spring: time for chocolate bunnies, chocolate and marshmallow eggs and jelly beans.

In Jewish families, the problem seems less acute. Hanukkah is not a candy-intensive celebration, and traditional Passover fare pales on the sugar scale compared with the excesses associated with Easter. Macaroons and Passover cakes look like health food beside the contents of the average Easter basket.

Old-fashioned parents try to stick to hard-boiled Easter eggs, but few can bring themselves to declare the most joyous Christian feast a sugar-free day. Even if they could, the contributions of friends, relatives and schoolmates would subvert their plans. So they stick the five-pound chocolate bunny in the back of the refrigerator, dole it out an ear at a time and pray that the children will forget before the tail disappears.

A plea on behalf of the parents of sugar-shocked children: if you must indulge your young friends this time of year, buy a stuffed bunny -- or even better, some flower seeds. After all, it's